Brief Chat: Georgetown's Emily Infeld

Apr 20, 2012

By Peter Gambaccini

Photo courtesy of Georgetown University

Emily Infeld of Georgetown University, the 2012 NCAA Indoor 3,000-meter champion, will run a 5,000 on Friday night at the Mt.

SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. Her listed rivals (and won't it be an amazing race if all of them show up) include pros Jenny Simpson, Molly Huddle and Anna Pierce and collegians Sheila Reid, Lucy Van Dalen, and Abbey D'Agostino.Infeld was second to Villanova's Reid in the 2010 NCAA Cross Country Championships, and also second to Reid in the 5,000 at the outdoor NCAA Championiships in 2011, running a personal best of 15:38.23.What are you anticipating Friday night at Mt. SAC? You had a terrific indoor season. Are you sharp at this point, and could you get a substantial PR?EI: I’m not exactly sure. I’m looking forward to racing it because last year, all the 5Ks I did were kind of tactical, so I never went out there and ran hard from the go to see what I could do. But then at the same time, I’m also not really sharp right now. We’ve been putting in a lot of good mileage, a lot of training. My legs are feeling a little tired. I don’t know exactly what that will mean, but I feel like my workouts have been going really well. I would definitely hope for a PR, to improve on that time from last year.And it seems like everywhere you go, you run into Sheila Reid.EI: Yeah, definitely. I talked to her at William and Mary the other weekend and we talked about this race. I think we were both excited to get into a race that’s not tactical.And then the following week you have the Penn Relays. You’ve been going there since high school, right?EI: Yeah, I went there my senior year of high school. This time, the 4 x 800 is on Saturday, the distance medley relay is Thursday, and the 4 x 1500 is Friday. Each day, there are definitely huge crowds, but Saturday is the most packed. It’s been really fun. It reminds me of a giant football stadium. It’s just really cool to think that many people are coming out of watch track.Last fall, you got fourth at NCAA Cross Country, another great performance after getting second the year before. And the team battle was so unclear. Watching the aftermath on the Internet, I got the impression, at various moments, that there were four different teams that had won the title. Did you initially think you hadn’t won? EI: No one really thought that we'd won, so we all left the [podium] area. You’re supposed to wait in there if you’re a contender but nobody was telling us to wait. Everyone on my team had scattered; I think they grabbed two freshmen and my coach. But I was out there with a couple of other girls on the team and I was talking to my parents, and then someone shouted at me. "Wait, come in, I think you guys are on the podium, you guys might have won." I ran around, me and my teammate Kirsten Kasper, trying to track down everyone else on our team. And then we went in [to the awards area] and were completely shocked. I had no idea. It was so cool.You mentioned being shocked. After your NCAA Indoor 3,000 win, you mentioned being shocked, too. What expectations did you have going into that race?
EI: There were so many talented girls out there, but I was feeling good and thought I should be right with them. At the DMR the night before, I didn't race very well. I was hoping, obviously, to come back from that and run better but I wasn't exactly sure how my legs would be feeling. So I just wanted to stay composed and relaxed and then see what I can do. Having that in the back of my mind is something very different than when you actually accomplish it. Even though I wanted it, it was a little bit shocking that I finally did it.You were in fourth with one 200-meter lap to go. EI: I was feeling really great, but I was on the inside, a little boxed in, and I was just going to try and go with whoever went and try and finish my last 50 as hard as I could. I feel like I lucked out. I found an opening and was just able to edge out the field at the end.I don't know if you think you have a legitimate shot at the Olympic team, but was any thought given to redshirting the track season and just focusing on the Trials?EI: No. No thought to that, just because I've already redshirted. Who knows what will happen by the end of the season, but I think four years from now would be my main [Olympic] focus. I just to go out there and mix it up with people and see what I can do. But I'm focusing on the college season. It'll just be a really cool experience to be racing there [at Mt. SAC] with so many elite runners.You'll have indoor and outdoor eligibility remaining in 2013. Have you given any thought to turning pro early?EI: Not as of now. I feel like I still have a lot of improving to do. I've had such a great experience at Georgetown and I kind of want to keep it going, be in college for a little longer. We'll see, though.I read that in fourth grade, your Halloween costume was an Olympic sprinter's. How did you get that interested in running at such an early age? What was the source of your early interest?EI: My dad did run in high school, but not even the entire time and not that competitively. But he and my mom started doing marathons when my sister started to run [her father completed last Monday's Boston Marathon]. I felt that from an early age I just loved running and I would do road races with my dad, little mile and two-mile things, maybe in third or fourth grade. I would get really excited to get the free t-shirt and the little trophies you get after and that sort of thing. I had a passion for it early on, and then my sister started doing track in middle school and I saw how much fun she had with it. So I did track and cross country as well and just feel in love with it and ever since then, I really enjoyed it.

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